Benjamin Franklin quotes on everything from success to happiness are still popular, relevant and insightful today. He was a remarkable man—he was a scientist, a diplomat, and an inventor, to name a few of his talents. But what I admire most about him was his wisdom.
PAGE CONTENT:
- Benjamin Franklin Short Biography
- 68 Inspiring and Thought-provoking Benjamin Franklin Quotes
- 13 Benjamin Franklin quotes on Education
- 2 Benjamin Franklin funny quotes
Although Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, he spent much of his life in Philadelphia. He was a printer, publisher, scientist, diplomat, and Founding Father of the United States. Franklin was a prolific writer and his Poor Richard’s Almanac was very popular.
He was also a leading figure in the American Revolution. Franklin was a great innovator and his inventions include the lightning rod and the Franklin stove. He was a highly respected figure in his time and his legacy continues to be felt today.
Not only was he a successful printer and publisher, he was also a scientist, diplomat, and inventor. Franklin’s many inventions include the lightning rod, the Franklin stove, and the bifocal lens.
Franklin was a leading figure in the American Revolution, and he served as a diplomat and ambassador in Europe. After the Revolution, Franklin was elected to the U.S. Congress.
He also helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Franklin was truly a remarkable man, and his accomplishments are still celebrated today.
Inspiring and Thought-provoking Benjamin Franklin Quotes
- “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
2. “He that can have patience can have what he will.”
3. “When you’re testing to see how deep water is, never use two feet.”
4. “Many people die at twenty five and aren’t buried until they are seventy five.”
5. “Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
6. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
7. “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
8. “Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”
9. “Work as if you were to live a thousand years, play as if you were to die tomorrow.”
10. “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”
11. “You may delay, but time will not.”
12. “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”
13. “Life biggest tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late”
14. “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.”
15. “you can do anything you set your mind to”
16. “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”
17. “Lost Time is never found again.”
18. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
19. “Content makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”
20. “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”
21. “A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned”
22. “You will find the key to success under the alarm clock.”
23. “Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.”
24. “If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.”
25. “God helps those who help themselves.”
26. “Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”
27. “A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother.”
28. “While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.”
29. “Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.”
30. “Never confuse Motion with Action.”
31. “When you are finished changing, you’re finished.”
32. “We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!”
33. “Happiness consists more in the small conveniences of pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom to a man in the course of his life.”
34. “Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
35. “…there will be sleeping enough in the grave….”
36. “For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”
37. “The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.”
38. “Love your Enemies, for they tell you your Faults.”
39. “When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.”
40. “Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal.”
41. “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
40. “There was never a bad peace or a good war.”
41. “For the best return on your money, pour your purse into your head.”
42. “Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
43. “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.”
44. “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.”
45. “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
46. Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.
47. “Well done is better than well said.”
48. “Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.”
49. “If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.”
50. “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.”
51. “Those things that hurt, instruct.”
52. Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.
53. “Words may show a man’s wit, actions his meaning.”
54. “I am for doing good to the poor, but…I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed…that
55. “the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.”
56. “Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”
57. “No one cares what you know until they know that you care!”
58. “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.”
59. “The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity.”
60. “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”
62. “To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.”
63. “Thinking aloud is a habit which is responsible for most of mankind’s misery.”
64. “A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
65. “Security without liberty is called prison.”
66. “How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.”
67. “You only have the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself.”
68. “Without Freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom;and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.”
Benjamin Franklin quotes on Education
69. “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.”
70. “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
71. “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.”
72. “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”
73. “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
74. “The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.”
75. “Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society.”
76. “If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.”
77. “Who is wise? He that learns from everyone. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.”
78. “Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.”
79. “The only thing that is more expensive than education is ignorance.”
80. “All the little money that ever came into my hands was ever laid out in books.”
81. “Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself”
Benjamin Franklin funny quotes
82. “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
83. “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.”
